Open on Christmas Day if you can pre-sell enough to cover double-time wages before the day, and check your premises licence first, because some old converted licences still carry a separate Christmas Day line with a 3pm to 7pm gap or a noon start. The law doesn't make you pay staff extra on the day, and it doesn't let you keep a big Christmas prepayment just because the table cancelled. Everything else is your sum.
Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday. Boxing Day falls on the Saturday, so the bank holiday moves to Monday 28th. Most pubs that open do a few hours at lunchtime. When the Morning Advertiser polled licensees in 2023, 58% said they'd open for lunch only, 31% wouldn't open at all, 8% would open all day, 3% from lunch until close, and 1% in the evening only. So if you're thinking a short lunchtime is the normal answer, it is.
First, read your licence for a Christmas Day line
This is the bit nobody checks. When the Licensing Act 2003 came in, existing pubs converted their old justices' licences under "grandfather rights", and a lot of them carried over the hours they had under the Licensing Act 1964. Christmas Day had its own hours under the old Act, with an afternoon break.
You can see it in black and white in a 2005 Eastbourne licensing report on a pub conversion. The old permitted hours it lists include Christmas Day 10:00 to 15:00, then 19:00 to 22:30. Other converted licences I found say Christmas Day 12 noon to 11.30pm, or for residential licences, noon to 10.30pm with a four-hour break from 3pm.
Plenty of pubs varied their licence at the same time or since, so yours may be fine. But if your hours section has a line starting "On Christmas Day", read it now, not on the 24th. Two things to look for:
- A noon start. If you were planning a Christmas morning pint at 11, a licence that says 12 noon means you can open the doors but not sell alcohol before then.
- A gap or an early finish. A licence with a 3pm to 7pm break means the second lunch sitting can't be sold a drink after three.
If the line is wrong for what you want, a Temporary Event Notice covers it for this year. For Christmas Day the standard TEN has to be with the council by 10 December, and my Christmas TEN guide has the dates and the late TEN risks. For every year after, it's a variation, which is worth doing in January while it's quiet.
One thing that doesn't apply to you: the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004. That's the one that stops large shops opening. A pub isn't a shop, so your licence is the only thing that sets your hours.
What you have to pay staff on Christmas Day
Less than most people think. There's no legal right to extra pay for working a bank holiday, and Christmas Day is treated the same. There's no legal right to the day off either. Government guidance is plain that bank holidays don't have to be given as paid leave at all. If you pay double time or time and a half, that's your choice or your contract's, not the law's. I've covered the detail in the holiday pay guide.
The floor is the National Living Wage, £12.71 an hour for 21 and over until April 2027. In practice most pubs pay a premium, because it's the only way to get a full rota on Christmas Day, and I think that's right. Just put it in writing before you build the rota, so nobody finds out on the 24th.
Tips on the day go to the staff. Since October 2024, tips that go through the business, card tips included, have to be passed on in full by the end of the following month. If you're doing a big lunch, sort out how they're split before the day. The cash-up sheet guide has the rules and a free tips record.
The sum for a drinks-only Christmas lunchtime
The simplest version is doors open 12 till 3 for a Christmas pint. Two of you behind the bar, half an hour either side to set up and clean, so seven paid hours.
| At £12.71 flat | At double time | |
|---|---|---|
| Wages for 7 hours | £88.97 | £177.94 |
| Pints to cover it at £2.45 gross profit each | 37 | 73 |
The £2.45 is the gross profit on a £5.34 pint from my electricity per pint guide. 73 pints in three hours is about 15 regulars having a few each. Most locals that open do that easily. If you'd struggle to get 15 people through the door, don't open, go home and have your dinner. It's the same logic as the quiet nights guide, just with turkey.
The sum for Christmas dinner
Food is where the money is and where the risk is. Here's a worked example, my numbers, not a real pub. A £70 a head Christmas Day menu, two sittings, 60 covers.
- £70 inc VAT is £58.33 ex VAT.
- At a 35% food cost that's £20.42 of ingredients a head, leaving £37.92 gross profit a cover.
- Seven staff on seven hours each, two in the kitchen, a porter and four out front, is 49 hours. That's £622.79 at the flat rate, £1,245.58 at double time.
At double time you need 33 covers just to pay the wages. 60 covers leaves you a decent day before you've counted a single drink. For what other pubs charge, my Christmas menu pricing guide has the 2025 survey figures for party menus. Christmas Day menus run well above those. The Morning Advertiser has quoted a £150 a head Christmas Day menu at one Kent pub, so £70 is a modest local.
The risk is the no-show. Ten empty seats on Christmas Day is £204 of food already bought and prepped, and £379 of gross profit you'll never see, because nobody books a table at 1pm on the day. That's why deposits matter more on this one day than any other.
Deposits: what you can keep if they cancel
The Competition and Markets Authority updated its unfair terms guidance in July 2026, and the deposits bit is clear enough for a licensee to use. A genuine deposit can be kept in full if you told the customer at the start that it was a deposit and exactly when it wouldn't come back. But it "will not normally be more than a small percentage of the price."
Take the whole £70 up front and it's a prepayment, not a deposit. You can still keep some of it if they cancel, but only what you reasonably need to cover your unavoidable costs or the profit you lose because of their cancellation. If you resell the seat, you've lost nothing on it. A term that says "all payments non-refundable whatever happens" is the kind the CMA calls likely to be unfair, and an unfair term can't be relied on.
What I'd do, and this is my practice, not legal advice:
- A small per-head deposit at booking, with the cancellation date written on the booking form and the confirmation email.
- Pre-orders in by a set date in early December, so you're buying for real dishes, not guesses.
- After the pre-order date, a written term that you'll keep what the cancellation actually costs you, the food bought for their order and the seat if you can't resell it, and refund the rest.
- A waiting list. Every cancelled table you refill is money back in the customer's pocket and none out of yours.
That protects the £20 of turkey and trimmings without the argument on Boxing Day.
The stock side
Christmas Day is the middle of a fortnight with two long gaps in deliveries. Whatever you open with on the 25th has to last until the drays run again, so set your pars off last year's Christmas Eve, not an ordinary Friday. My Christmas and New Year stock guide has the full plan. And count on the morning of the 24th and again on the 27th or 28th. Christmas Day trade is the easiest to lose in a monthly count, because nobody remembers what went out free.
One idea worth trying
Make the decision with a sign-up sheet, not a gut feeling. Put a card on the bar in mid-November: "Thinking of opening 12 till 3 on Christmas Day. Name down if you'd come in." If you get 15 names, open, because you've got your 73 pints. If you get four, you've saved yourself a day's wages and told nobody you were closing until you knew. Regulars like being asked, and the ones who sign tend to turn up.
My take
Christmas Day pays for most locals that open for a few hours at lunchtime. The drinks sum is easy to clear and the dinner sum is excellent if the tables turn up. What catches people out isn't the money, it's the paperwork. A licence line nobody's read since 2005, or a deposit term that wouldn't stand up the first time a table of ten cancels on the 23rd. Sort both in November and the day mostly takes care of itself.
Common questions
Do pubs have to pay staff double time on Christmas Day?
No. There's no legal right to extra pay for working a bank holiday, and Christmas Day is treated the same. Staff must get at least the National Living Wage, £12.71 an hour for those 21 and over until April 2027. Any premium is down to you or the contract.
Can a pub open on Christmas Day?
Yes, within the hours on its premises licence. The Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 only stops large shops opening. Check your licence for a separate Christmas Day line, because some converted licences carry old hours with a noon start or a 3pm to 7pm break.
What are pub licensing hours on Christmas Day?
Whatever your premises licence says. Some licences converted in 2005 kept the old 1964 Act Christmas Day hours, with a break from 3pm to 7pm and a 10.30pm finish. Others say 12 noon to 11.30pm. If you need different hours this year, a Temporary Event Notice for Christmas Day has to be in by 10 December.
Can a pub keep a Christmas Day deposit if the booking cancels?
A genuine deposit, made clear at the start with clear rules on when it isn't refunded, can usually be kept, but the CMA says it should normally be a small percentage of the price. A full prepayment can only be kept to cover your actual losses, such as food bought for the order and a seat you can't resell.
How many pubs open on Christmas Day?
In a 2023 Morning Advertiser poll of 131 licensees, 58% opened for lunch only, 31% stayed closed, 8% opened all day, 3% from lunch until close and 1% in the evening only.
Sources
- Christmas Day opening poll, 131 respondents: 58% lunch only, 31% closed, 8% all day, 3% lunch to close, 1% evening only: Morning Advertiser, 30 October 2023.
- Grandfather rights conversion carrying Licensing Act 1964 permitted hours, including Christmas Day 10:00 to 15:00 and 19:00 to 22:30: Eastbourne Borough Council licensing sub-committee report, 5 September 2005.
- Converted licence wording, Christmas Day 12 noon to 11.30pm, residential licence noon to 10.30pm with a four-hour break from 3pm: Herefordshire Council, premises licence appendix.
- Old Sunday hours grandfathered onto many licences, check your licence before Christmas trading: Morning Advertiser, Poppleston Allen, 1 December 2023.
- Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004, an Act to prohibit the opening of large shops on Christmas Day: legislation.gov.uk.
- Bank holidays do not have to be given as paid leave: gov.uk, holiday entitlement.
- Deposits and prepayments, paragraph 6.62, "will not normally be more than a small percentage of the price": CMA37, Unfair contract terms guidance, 22 July 2026.
- Christmas Day menu at £150 a head: Morning Advertiser, 15 November 2023.
- National Living Wage £12.71, tips rules, TEN deadlines, £2.45 gross profit per pint: my holiday pay, cash-up sheet, TEN and electricity per pint guides, each with its own sources. The drinks and dinner worked examples, the deposit approach and the sign-up sheet are mine. This is a licensee's reading, not legal advice.